Integration at a Glance

In moving to open systems, Sea-Land Service faced these issues and found solutions that may apply to your organization as well.

Need

1. Corporate management and operational structure provided only a fragmentary, division-by-division view of operations.

2. IS personnel were devoting too many resources to maintaining legacy mainframe-based applications and not spending enough time on new strategic systems.

3. Tracking container cargo bookings was difficult and cumbersome because of an antiquated, largely paper-based process.

4. The company had difficulty knowing whether each booking of container cargo was profitable.

5. Sales force lacked access to information to execute business strategy.

Solution

1. Reorganize the company through a worldwide consolidation of management and operational personnel to a new worldwide headquarters.

2. Outsource legacy systems maintenance to low-cost suppliers so internal personnel could concentrate on building new applications that would help the company achieve competitive advantage.

3. Develop and deploy new IT systems to track shipments and provide status reports to company and customers.

4. Implement a yield management system to better utilize resources, including ships and containers, and strive for maximum profitability on a booking-by-booking basis.

5. Build a new sales force automation system that could go into the field with the 350-member worldwide sales force.